The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1887-02-25

distribution of South American plants
and he follows out this simple lead to his
doctrine of the natural origin Of speces,-
the other scientific contamination of the
century Give Cuvier a tooth or bone OF
an animal whose race ran out thousands Of
years ago, and sometimes he could recon-
struct its figure, and the rocky archives Of
| its burial-place would prove his vision
| right. And Agassiz (the story, ! believe,
is strictly true) thrice dreamed his way in
to the stone and saw the creature lying
there i'll fossil with the structure which his
hammer afterwards uncovered. Cuvier
and Agassiz, Darwin AMI Mayer could do
these things; why not common seers OF
science? Because each man can only see
in proportion to what he has seen, that is,
in proportion to what he is already. THE
better mind, the deeper insight; the great
er fund of knowledge already acquired, the
greater find of knowledge vouchsafed
II. IL MAN.
Now, let us turn from nature to man.
Here we come upon a ground common to
ALL to readers and those who have no time
or no taste for reading, to men of science
and those, like most Of MS, who can only
swallow the crumbs that fall from their
table, and wonder what the loaf must be
that can make such rare crumbs. In men
we see what we are,-that is, we see in
them those possibilities Of nobleness and
ignobleness which we have caught sight of
in our own inward experience
Expressions linger and social crimes and
social ignorance abound among us;-still,
look around, and then look back to see how
the spirit of society towards its younger
and poorer members and lower classes and
more degraded races, is changing for the
better The change will be cause, but it
is also and first, the consequence, of
a finer inward moral tone. In men of to-
day we see more, because we are more of
men ourselves, because tile average amount
of manhood incarnate in 100 pounds is
greater than it used to be. For example,
the ''New education" assumes that the
child is 4 being all wings and faculties. and
that the teachers part is not to put know
ledge into mind box, but to tempt the
wings and faculties to grow. To the right
seeing teacher the school is an angel-gar-
den. Again the prison has long been the
den where the least agreeable could be
herded cut OF society's sight; for those
whose fangs proved most injurious moth
ing better than killing could be devised. 1t
is not the discovery of this century that
our criminals are meu and women like our
selves; that souls and consciences 90
behind the barred gates and into the
striped clothes; but it is only after all
these centuries of growth that our eyes
have come to see the fact plainly enough
for us to think of prisons as reform-schools,
and of reform-schools as kind of public
home. To-day the aim in the best prisons
is nothing less than to create citizen, =
to give back to society selfsupporting,
f-controlIing, self-respecting man in
place of the untamed creature that went
in. The sacredness of human beings is
growing in our eyes; we see more TO re-
spect in our troublers, because we have
more to respect i'll ourselves, i. e., we are
more, and as we are we see.
So, too, with the treatment of the insane
and those MANNED from their birth in mind.
1t is but a century since men saw in them
beings past the touch of reasonable ard
kind address. To-day we see miracles of
resurrection wrought by human sympathy
! nf
Howe feeling his way to Laura Bridge
mans imprisoned soul and finding it; and
bringing it forth to society along the path
way of q single sense, the sense of touch,
left in the palm OF Laura's hand. That
act of discovery sets the type of this CEN
tury. The insane asylnms Of our land are
radically changing to adapt them 10 the
system now followed so successfully nicer
tain English and Scotch Asylums. the
system of unbarred windows, slightly
locked and even unlocked doors. open fire.
places and homelilse entertainments. The
nations conscience at last has begun to
stir even in our relations with the Indian.
i The savagery of war grows more horrid
/ Ill TIE ll3ut Ui ItdllnS COMMISSIONS anu
Peace Tribunals. Yes, even the savagery
! of that minor war that with audacious
honesty we call sport,-I mean the war up
on the creatures beneath man, the races of
brutes and birds and fish,-of war or them
in mere pursuit of human fun,-pigeon
matches, squirrel matches, foN-hunting,
bull-ights, bear-baiting, and the like
even this is growing everybody for Nine
teenth Century eyes, oyer-thoughtless for
Nineteenth Century minds and hearts.
Even in the brutes we are seeing more
manlikeness as fast as we become more
of men ourselves.
The word slavery has become an
abomination in peoples eyes. Garrison $
motto no longer seems too strong, "A
covenant with death and an agreement
with hell" John Brown Twins the world
through shame" The REIMBURSEMENT of
the laborer's relation to capital is the great
| question at issue now, and no doubt will
be the great question of the next few hun
dred years; foi it is but the modern form
in which the medieval, or rather the
chronic, problem of emancipation confronts
4ha oiv;livatiop of tho day Hut the fact